


Safe and Sound

by litm



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV), Captain America (Movies), Marvel (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Established Relationship, F/M, Light Angst, Mild Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-07
Updated: 2014-07-07
Packaged: 2018-02-07 21:05:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1913856
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/litm/pseuds/litm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The words he’d whispered to her haunt her in her dreams.</p><p> <i>“You’re safe now.”</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Safe and Sound

**Author's Note:**

> For those of you who haven’t read this drabble yet, you’ll be delighted to know I’ve made graphics to go along with it. You can check them out [here](http://afieldofcosmos.tumblr.com/post/90832681265/love-a-single-word-a-wispy-thing-a-word-no) if you want.
> 
> I really should have posted this the day it went live on tumblr, but I hadn’t the chance to do so before I had to rush off to work. No worries, it’s all my bad. Nevertheless, I finally got a chance to show this baby off and I’m very happy with the way it turned out. So with that said, please enjoy!

“Love: a single word, a wispy thing, a word no bigger or longer than an edge.  That’s what it is: an edge; a razor.  It draws up through the center of your life, cutting everything in two.  Before and after.  The rest of the world falls away on either side.” – Lauren Oliver, _Delirium_

* * *

 

 _“He loves you,”_ Steve tells her when she looks to him for answers.

_“Bucky did everything he could to get to you, Jemma.  Even went as far as to disobey orders… he’d been hell-bent on saving you from the ones he hates and fears the most.”_

And he’d nearly lost his life in the process of playing the big damn hero.  It’s all her fault, she wants to scream.  He’d taken the bullets meant for her, had had the audacity to smile up at her lovingly as she desperately tried to staunch the blood flow from his abdomen, and wiped away the overabundance of tears burning trails down her cheeks.  The words he’d whispered to her haunt her in her dreams.

 _“You’re safe now.”_ She echoes, cradling his right hand in her own before pressing it to her chest.  She makes sure to place it directly atop her heart so that he might be able to feel the sensations of its elevated rhythm while he sleeps.  It is her own way of showing him how much he means to her, how much she can’t live without him; her heart, it beats for him and him alone.

She refuses to leave his side until she knows he will be okay.  Coulson makes to protest, but stops when he catches sight of the steely look of defiance in her eyes.  His sigh of resignation is bittersweet, but a victory all the same.  May eyes her with something akin to curiosity and perhaps even approval before she escorts the director from the room, leaving Simmons to her waiting.

Trip brings her a makeshift bed to lie down on, Skye brings her a few pillows and blankets, and Fitz brings her a steaming hot cup of tea; the trio all but orders her to rest, but she merely shakes her head and sips her tea diffidently.  Fitz glares.  Evidently, he is not afraid to hit below the belt, but that is hardly surprising.  As her oldest and closest friend, he knows her better than all the rest, knows exactly what to say to get her to do the right thing.

_“What would Barnes say if he knew you hadn’t slept in the forty-eight hours you’ve spent sitting here, worrying and crying and carrying on in abject misery?  He’d be disappointed, wouldn’t he?”_

The withering glare she presents him with is enough to let him know that he’s won, and as soon as he knows she’s settled on the bed, curled around one of the many pillows Skye brought her, the smug bastard leaves her be.  She dozes off after finishing her tea, relives that awful moment of watching Bucky fall again and again and again.

Her whimpers are the softest of sounds, but even still he manages to hear her and begins to stir.  He can’t stand the thought of her in pain.  Jemma is the first person he sees when he wakes, and Bucky drinks in the sight of her as if he is a man possessed, her chest rising and falling, her freckled cheeks dusted pink; he maintains she is the most beautiful creature he’s ever seen.  He knows she has suffered, feels guilty for putting her through the ordeal of waiting for him to come to, but comforts himself with the knowledge that she is safe.  She will live to see another day as will he, and together, the two of them will make peace with the concept of shared near-death experiences.

They _will_ get through this, he reasons.  He refuses to believe otherwise as he is a very selfish man, and he is unwilling to let go of the one woman he knows without a doubt he does not deserve and yet cannot live without.


End file.
